Moral Identity and Attitudes towards Doping in Sport: Whether Perception of Fair Play Matters.

Saulius Sukys,Ilona Tilindiene,Daiva Majauskiene,Diana Karanauskiene

doi:10.3390/ijerph182111531

Saulius Sukys, Ilona Tilindiene + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111531

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Abstract

Research evidence suggests that athletes’ attitudes towards banned substances are among the strongest predictors of intention to use or actual practice of doping. Previous research has found that personal morality was negatively related to doping attitudes. However, less is known about the role of athletes’ perceptions of fair play on their attitudes towards doping. First, we examined whether moral identity was associated with athletes’ attitudes towards doping and whether their perceptions of fair play mediated this relationship. The second purpose was to determine whether these associations differed among non-athletes. Overall, 365 university students (49.9% males, 55.3% athletes) participated in this study (mean age 22.02, SD = 6.58). They completed questionnaires measuring the aforementioned variables. The results showed that athletes’ moral identity and endorsement of fair play were negatively associated with their attitudes towards doping. The mediation analyses showed that the effect of moral identity on attitudes towards doping was partially mediated by perceptions of fair play (indirect effect, β = −0.10, p < 0.05). Unlike student athletes, non-athletes’ moral identity negatively predicted attitudes towards doping only indirectly, via fair play perception (indirect effect, β = −0.08, p < 0.05). The study provides insights into how a person’s morality and perception of moral values in sport may act as factors related to doping in sport. The practical implications for the promotion of anti-doping attitudes for athletes and separately for student non-athletes were provided together with future research perspectives.

Highlights

Sport has to provide opportunities for athletes to compete and demonstrate their skills in fair play [1,2]
Study results showed that participants could be characterized by a relatively high moral identity, they relatively endorsed fair play, and had negative attitudes to doping in sport (Table 1)
Correlations indicated that moral identity was negatively associated with positive attitudes to doping and positively associated with an endorsement of fair play

Summary

Introduction

Sport has to provide opportunities for athletes to compete and demonstrate their skills in fair play [1,2]. Some athletes try to put effort into improving their mastery in order to succeed, but at the same time take risks by using banned performance-enhancing drugs or methods referred to as doping. Some studies have revealed that up to 57% of elite athletes use doping for performance improvement [4]. Efforts are being made to test athletes more, this has not yet yielded significant results [6]. In order to develop and improve doping prevention programs, it is important to have a good understanding of the factors that influence athletes’ choices to use doping in sport [7,8]

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